{"id":37562,"date":"2018-02-26T05:00:03","date_gmt":"2018-02-26T10:00:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/?p=37562"},"modified":"2018-01-08T06:51:45","modified_gmt":"2018-01-08T11:51:45","slug":"win-the-battle-lose-the-war-reading-nephi-1748-55","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/2018\/02\/win-the-battle-lose-the-war-reading-nephi-1748-55\/","title":{"rendered":"Win the Battle, Lose the War &#8211; Reading Nephi &#8211; 17:48-55"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/2015\/09\/reading-nephi-series-introduction\/068-068-the-liahona-full\/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-34016\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-34016\" src=\"http:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/068-068-the-liahona-full-300x196.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"196\" srcset=\"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/068-068-the-liahona-full-300x196.jpg 300w, https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/068-068-the-liahona-full-1024x669.jpg 1024w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a>This post is part of a series of reflections on I Nephi. If you&#8217;re interested, the introduction to the series is <a href=\"http:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/2015\/09\/reading-nephi-series-introduction\/\">here.<\/a>\u00a0To peruse earlier entries, click the authors tab at the top of the page and then click on my name. I welcome your own thoughts on these specific verses (or on my reflections) in the comments below.<\/p>\n<p>* * * *<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.lds.org\/scriptures\/bofm\/1-ne\/17.36\">I Nephi 17:48-55<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Conspicuous that Grant Hardy titles this pericapee \u201cNephi Commands His Brothers\u201d\u2014which is clearly what took place, though Nephi never explicitly states as much.<\/p>\n<p>I find that this kind of critique\u2014together with the harshness of the negative rhetoric in verses 44-47\u2014is never more than a short-term fix. Nephi\u2019s approach of candid, unyielding denunciation consistently results in a begrudging, temporary truce. And ultimately\u2014failure. The great question is whether the short-term victories are worth it. Sometimes\u2014such as when one is under what appears to be an existential crisis\u2014perhaps it is. It\u2019s not clear Nephi could fulfill God\u2019s commandments otherwise, and in the scriptures God rarely gets into the details of how we are to bring about his stern commands (which makes sense\u2014not having detailed plans demands not only our faith but our fully committed engagement and best efforts; which is always a large part of the point). I\u2019m sympathetic to the pressures and alienation and even the self-righteousness that Nephi manifestly felt. It\u2019s conspicuous that God both supports and restrains Nephi\u2019s approach. Cumulatively, however, at Jerusalem, outside of Jerusalem, while starving in the wilderness, at the death of Ishmael, here at Bountiful, next on the sea, and then in the New World, Nephi\u2019s strategy wins battles and loses the war.<\/p>\n<p>The eternal cosmological drama in which we\u2019re embedded demands that we work to reflect the divinity of our enemies back to them if we wish them to join with us in our Zionic alliance of apotheosis. And whether we do, that\u00a0<em>is<\/em> what we ought to wish.\u00a0There is no exaltation outside of this approach.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The eternal cosmological drama in which we\u2019re embedded demands that we work to reflect the divinity of our enemies back to them if we wish them to join with us in our Zionic alliance of apotheosis. And whether we do, that\u00a0is what we ought to wish.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":122,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[55],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-37562","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news-politics"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37562","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/122"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37562"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37562\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":37584,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37562\/revisions\/37584"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37562"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37562"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37562"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}